Errand Boy
by Sneventeen
Summary: Another one of those 'Dipper makes a deal' stories. Lots of doritos included! Rated T for violence, mild language, and suggestive themes. ABANDONED, PLEASE PM ME IF YOU'D LIKE TO PICK UP WHERE I LEFT OFF
1. The Dorito and his Deal

This started out as a quick warm-up before I started writing chapter two of Just Desserts, but.. ahah.. turned out I had more muse than I thought. :P If you read, please review!

"Ow.. OW! Mabel! Quit it! Can't—breath—ah!"

"NEVER UNDERESTIMATE GIRLS!"

The twins were inseparable. It was something everybody admired about them—their loyalty to each other, their inability to stay mad at each other for so long. They were a lot different from the stereotypical twins most people thought of. Two kids that just despised each other, always fought, never got along.. but Mabel and Dipper were special. There weren't too many like them.

The argument they had gotten into had turned into a ticklefight with Mabel as the triumphant champion. It always did! Dipper pushed her off, panting hard. "Mabel.. ah.. hahah.."

Mabel made a 'bap' noise as she poked her brother's nose before rolling off the sofa and skipping off to the kitchen. Dipper leaned against the couch, watching his cheerful sibling hum loudly as she did.. whatever Mabel did in the kitchen. He put his hand on his chest, feeling a bit of a burning in his throat as he could barely even breath when Mabel had tackled him. What had they even been fighting about? Something stupid, probably.

He glanced at the TV, watching some stupid infomercial about.. owls.. and.. trowels? The stuff that was on TVs today, seriously.

It was a few minutes before Mabel plopped herself on the couch next to him, quickly falling down onto a pillow on the opposite side of Dipper. The boy put his hand on the sofa arm, resting his chin in his hand. He blankly stared at the TV, unable to make out what was going on. It was pretty late at night, and Mabel was already asleep. He happened to look over at her slumped over form, smiling a little. Life was pretty good.

He yawned, stretching out and laying his head on the rather uncomfortable corner of the couch. He'd take Mabel's pillow, but she looked so.. peaceful. A wave of drowsiness washed over him, before he himself drifted into a deep sleep.

It was they call, 'the calm before the storm'.

He did not dream until a few hours later, and he was abruptly awoken. Or was he still sleeping? He didn't know. His eyes shot open, staring at an all-too familiar figure.

"Bill."

What was he doing here? Before he had a chance to process these thoughts, the demon's one eye snapped over to focus on Dipper.

"Ah, Pine Tree! Just the little kid I was looking for. How ya' doin', short stack?" The triangle cackled, ruffling his ebony hand in Dipper's brown hair. He immediately stumbled back, rubbing his eyes and glaring daggers at the monster.

"I'm not a little kid! Besides, you're smaller than me! What do you even want, anyways? Don't you think I have enough trouble sleeping at night without some weird triangle thing haunting me?!" Dipper rambled, obviously too tired to think of something smart to say.

Bill just laughed, pulling out his cane from nowhere. "Dang, Piney. You must be tired. Never thought someone like you would say anything like that.." He rolled his eye, turning around and looking over at Mabel.

Dipper rubbed his puffy, tired eyes, crossing his arms. He didn't say anything this time around—he knew well enough to not say anything. He wouldn't let Bill make fun of him that easily. He'd let the demon say whatever he wanted, when he decided to.

Apparently Bill had figured this out, so got straight to his point. "Well, you're no fun. I guess all kids are cranky when it's past their bedtime, right? Do you need a diaper change? Hmm? Does the widdle wamby-wamb need his widdle bwanky? Hahahah," Bill beamed, obviously content with his very terrible jokes.

"Alright, alright. Sorry. Just had to. Anyways.. little miss Shootin' Star here, I kinda need her gone. You wouldn't mind if I, just, ah, got rid of her, would you?" He said abruptly, hand turning up in blue flames—yet his eye was a solid blue, with no pupil at all.

"What? Are you serious? You think I'm going to say yes?" Dipper spat, launching himself in front of his sister.

"I heard a yes! Okay, thanks! Say bye-bye, P—" Bill put his enflamed hand dangerously close to Mabel's chest, which rose and fell to a steady pattern.

"WAIT! No, stop! It's.. it's a no. What do you even mean? What's—"

"No time to explain. It's either her, or.. well, you'd do as well." Bill's hand returned to normal, as well as his eye. He put his left hand just above his bowtie, as if that was where his chin would be. "Hmm..."

"..what are you up to? You show up out of nowhere, invade my uncle's mind just for a stupid JOB, possess me for the Journal, and now you want to.. want to KILL my sister? Why? What's the point of all this?" Dipper practically growled his words, confusion and anger clear on his face.

"It's just my work, Piney. Someday, it'll be clear. But I need to know.. now. Is it gonna be her, or you?"

"A—are you.. going to.. kill me? Instead of her?" Dipper asked quietly, almost as if he was being hush-hush in fear of Mabel hearing him. Bill found this to be cute, and put his hands on his hips. Or triangle corners, whatever.

"Kill you? No. You're a little too important. But, I'd like to have you around, maybe as an.. errand boy. What do you think, Chip-Dip?"

"Errand boy..? Not another 'puppet', right?"

"Mm, well, no."

Dipper remained quiet for a long time, staring down at his shoes. He couldn't have his sister's life risked. He knew that she'd take the deal in a heartbeat—

"Do you really know for sure that she would, though? I'm fine with taking her life, honestly. It doesn't matter much to me."

Oh, thoughts. Right. Dipper glanced up, glaring. "She would. I know it. So.. is this.. a deal, then?"

"Oh! Eager, aren't ya'? Well, yes. A deal's a deal. This time, no takebacks.."

He held out his hand, which blazed up in it's infamous cyan flame. Dipper rubbed his elbow, hesitantly shaking Bill's. The fire spiraled up Dipper's arm, burning a effervescent blue pine tree symbol—similar to the one on his hat—encased in a triangle onto his forehead. He screamed in pain, holding his head in his hands as his knees buckled and he fell onto the ground.

Bill laughed, and started to float backwards.

"Thanks, kid. You won't regret this one."

Thanks for reading! uvu I wrote this yesterday, but didn't have any time to post it. I'll probably be updating it today :V remember to review if you can! Favorites and follows are extremely appreciated 3


	2. Doritos are Delicious

Hey guys! Sorry it took this long to upload chapter two—I was so surprised at all the positive feedback it received, I wanted to surprise you guys with two chapters in one day! They might be a little shorter than the first, but I hope you guys will enjoy it anyways :D Alright, alright. I'll stop rambling.. without further ado, here's chapter two! (see what I did there I rhymed because it's chapter two and I—…sorry)

Story Begins Below

When he had awoken, he was in bed. It was odd—he could have sworn he passed out on the sofa. He glanced around, spotting Mabel's sleeping form also in bed next to him. Stan must have brought them up to their rooms while they were sleeping, or something. Hmm. For a tough old guy, he had his moments.

Dipper yawned, standing up on shaky legs. He was still pretty tired, despite having almost a full night's rest. Ah, well.. he groggily walked into the bathroom, quickly brushing his teeth and rinsing out his mouth with a cup of water. He gargled, spit, and happened to look up in the mirror.

He saw a sort of glowing, blue mark just under his shaggy brown hair—had Mabel drawn on him again?—and he flipped back his hair to see..

Oh, god. How could he have forgotten what had happened? The deal.. it.. no. He stared in the mirror, gawking at the glowing pine tree, entrapped in a triangle. It was over his natural birthmark, which made it even worse—how could he get rid of it? Maybe Bill had drawn on him? Did he do those kinds of things..?

He rubbed his eyes and hopped in the shower, hoping a hard scrub on his face would get it off. It had to be some stupid prank. He knew Bill was evil, but this was just.. embarrassing. Not to mention extremely cruel for the little triangle.

He got out, drying his face first and wrapping his towel around his waist. His wet hair covered his forehead, so he got on his tiptoes and pulled it back.

It was still there! Great. He pounded his fist on the sink, which.. hurt. Ow. He sharply inhaled, shaking his hand in pain.

He just had to.. hide it. No big deal, right? Right. He slipped on his clothes and made sure his hair covered it for the most part. He then put his hat on, making sure the bill was as close to his eyes as possible. Perfect—he couldn't see it, so he was sure nobody else could. He sighed and opened the bathroom door, peering around to make sure Mabel or Stan weren't nearby.

He quietly made his way downstairs, figuring he could just grab his breakfast and go out into the forest. Luckily, he brought his journal with him everywhere, so it was in his normal vest pocket. There had to be some way to fix this, right?

He went into the kitchen, not seeing any food ready or.. anything. Huh. Stan must not have gotten up yet? Dipper frowned and made himself some toast—which turned out horribly burnt and bitter—and scurried out the door. Phew, no interruptions.

He made it into a forest clearing, seating himself on a decaying log and taking out his journal. He flipped it open, scanning all the pages to see if there was someway to reverse a demon's branding—but nothing. Nothing! This wasn't the first time his book wasn't helpful, but this was extremely frustrating.

It couldn't be that bad, could it? He took off his hat, walking deeper into the forest. He knew he shouldn't have gone so far, but, he was irritated. And when he was irritated, he was oblivious.

Dipper looked in a puddle, pulling back his hair. In his reflection, at first, he didn't see anything, which made him confused—but as soon as he looked closer, he saw it, glowing brighter than ever before.

"Darn it!" He spat, stomping the puddle so that his reflection rippled away. This was so stupid—Bill was so stupid!

"If I'm so stupid, then why'd you make a deal with me?"

Dipper whipped around, stepping backwards as his vision became black and white. The triangle appeared before him, laughing madly as he floated in circles around him.

"Don't you like the pretty tattoo I did for you? I even made it glow! You have to admit, it's pretty cool," Bill snickered, adjusting his bowtie as if he was proud of himself.

"Bill! I thought I was just.. going to do you a favor, or something. I didn't say you could.. _brand _me!" Dipper snarled, balling his hands into fists as he gritted his teeth.

"Haha! Favor! Yeah, right. I don't need any favors from you.. because you're going to do them on your own.. right?" Bill's eye narrowed, his pupil beginning to glow blue, just like Dipper's forehead.

Dipper raised an eyebrow, obviously confused—that was, until, he began to get the same burning feeling he had when he had made the deal with Bill.

He howled in pain, hugging his knees to his chest as he collapsed onto the ground. He writhed, squirmed, even began tearing into the earth in his insanity-filled rage. It took him all of his strength to stutter out, "Y—yes! Please! I'll do anything! J.. just.. make it stop, p—please!"

With a snap of the little devil's fingers, the pain stopped. Dipper struggled to get a grip on himself as he stood up, breathing still shaky and uncoordinated.

"Well, now you know what happens when you.. _disobey _me." Bill murmured, grabbing Dipper's chin to force him to look up into his eye.

"If you don't want to ever go through that again, you'll do what I say, when I say it. Do you understand, Pine Tree?" He said 'Pine Tree' with obvious disgust and hatred in his voice.

Dipper nodded quickly, feeling Bill let go of his chin. He looked down, still trying to steady his heartbeat. He had never experienced anything like it, but.. what Bill said, made him worried. What if he was just going to be used to kill Mabel? He couldn't do it, but.. he knew that Bill would stop at nothing to get him to do it. He'd probably be driven insane enough to the point where he'd do anything to get the pain away from him.

The future looked so bleak, now. He stared down at his hands, imagining all the scenarios Bill could—and probably would—put him up to. His eyes watered as he glanced up to see the triangle laughing his head off.

"Well, see ya later, Piney! It won't be long until I have your first little task.."

With that, Bill disappeared, leaving Dipper back to the harsh reality he now had to face.

Just a man and his thoughts.

As I said before, these next chapters are a bit shorter than the first, but I'm hoping you guys still enjoy them! The next one will definitely be up later tonight, if not sooner. Thanks for reading, and if you liked, a review, favorite, and/or follow is greatly appreciated! 3


	3. This chapter doesn't include any doritos

Heeeeere's chapter three!

It was an unnervingly quiet trip back. He didn't know what he was going to do—he assumed.. whatever Bill told him to do. But how was he even supposed to know what the demon was going to force him to do?

He sighed and kicked a few rocks, before finally arriving back at the Mystery Shack. He stared at it for a while, knowing that soon his home would be chaos with this stupid deal he had made. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad—Bill couldn't possibly make him do anything extremely terrible.. would he?

Dipper put his hat on and tucked the journal—which he had been reading while he had been walking—under his vest. He walked inside, avoiding eye contact with Wendy, who was tapping away on her phone. Good. Out of all the people in the world, she was the _last _one he wanted to be worried for their job, friends, family.. and possibly life.

He made it up to his room, closing the door behind him. He took out the journal and set it on the ground, seating himself at reading it tentatively. There had to be a way to at least reverse this ridiculous marking on his head before Mabel or someone else found out.

He put his hand to his forehead, which felt extremely hot to the touch. He didn't feel feverish, though.. it must have just been another way for Bill to stop Dipper from messing with it. He looked down at his hand, noticing the parts that had touched the branding were slightly red in color. Wait, were they.. burnt? Whoa. He rubbed it with his other hand, massaging it until the little marks were gone.

He was just about to turn to the blank pages and use the backlight on it, when he heard a voice in the back of his mind say—

_Destroy the journal._

He started to feel lightheaded, and when he put his hand to his forehead again, he could only leave it there for a second—it was practically like touching fire!

_Destroy the journal._

"**N—no!"** He whisper-yelled into the nothingness, surveying the room to see if someone was just playing tricks on him.

A hot flash racked his body, causing him to jolt forward and bang into the door. No.. was this what Bill wanted him to do? Was this his 'first task'?

_Destroy. The. Journal. _The voice echoed, a lot more threatening this time. _Rip it up. Now._

He now could not move a muscle without feeling sick to his stomach. It was different forms of pain, all at once—motion sickness, burning, soreness.. it felt like he was being ripped apart, only to be stitched back together with his own nerves. His breathing started to become short and he lurched back towards the book, grabbing hold of some of the pages. He tore them out, madness filling his tired eyes as he ripped them apart, one by one.

That was, until, he heard a much too innocent voice say, "Dipper?"

He whipped around, paper shreds still in his hands. Mabel stared at him, jaw dropped—what on earth was he _doing_? "Dipper.. why are you—"

_Don't stop! Destroy! Destroy! _The voice hissed, pain rippling down his neck. He held out his arm, trying to stop Mabel from getting near. With his other hand, he tore out more pages, crumbling them as best he could with just one hand.

"—stop! What are you _doing_, bro?"

Mabel pushed him aside, snatching up the journal from his weak attempts to hang onto it. Dipper began to tremble with rage and anger, tackling his sister and pinning her down so that he could grab the book. At the same time, he was beginning to feel like he was on fire again, which caused him to curl up and fall right off of Mabel. "I'm destroying it! See! Bill! Make it _stop!_ I'm—I'm—I'm tearing it up!" He screeched, shaking as he tore out more pages.

_Yesss! Good! Destroy!_

"DIPPER! Stop!" Mabel yelled, tussling her brother for the half-ruined book.

"No! Stop! I need to destroy it!"

"Why? After everything that it's done for us, after everything you've discovered..? Why are you destroying it?!"

Dipper stared up into Mabel's eyes, his brown irises holding a thousand sorrows she probably couldn't even imagine at the time. He cried out as his nerves began to frazzle and fry like they were being nuked in a microwave, tears making his eyes puffy and even more bloodshot then before.

The book flew across the room as Mabel pried it from his hands, only to have it kicked out of her grasp.

Mabel got up, but held him down with her foot—as harsh as that sounded, it was the only way to stop him—and reached for the journal. She held it in her hands, looking down at her brother, and then back torn pages he had destroyed.

"Pl—please! Mabel!" Dipper pleaded, nose starting to suddenly bleed profusely.

She bit her lip, unable to stand seeing her brother in this much pain. Why did he want it destroyed so much? "If you just tell me, why, I'll—"

"NO! I have to destroy it! N... hnngh.." He coughed, chest inflamed as he struggled to even breath now.

Mabel didn't know what to do—so she did the best thing she could think of. She held it out in front of her, one hand on the front cover, another on the back—and she tore it, right in half.

He breathed a sigh of relief, the pain leaving him immediately. She shredded the remaining pages, panting as she slowly took her foot off of his chest.

As he got up, his hat fell off, causing a little bit of the brand to show under his hair. Mabel stared at the ruined journal for a while, before she looked back up at Dipper, his sanity slowly starting to return.

She didn't even bother to ask, and just pulled his hair back, gawking at the glowing azure marking. Out of all the questions she could have asked, she only had one:

"What is _that_?"

Sorry these last two chapters seemed a bit jumbled.. they were rushed.. x_x I promise that the next one will be a lot better, and full of juicy plot stuff! B^)

Thanks for reading! If you can, leave a review, favorite, or follow. They all mean a lot to me. :)


	4. I like Cool Ranch Doritos

AH! I had to fit this chapter in, because I reeeeeally feel bad about how I was unable to write on Sunday. I did the last half of this on my phone, so please excuse any part of it that seems rushed. X_X If you like this story, please continue to review, favorite, or follow! Criticism is extremely appreciated, but again, please note that half was done mobile since I couldn't stand having all these pressure of writing on my shoulders.

"_He BRANDED you? Are you serious? You're just his.. his puppet again! Another pawn!"_

_"Mabel—"_

"_Why would you let him DO that? Like, what was so important that you just HAD to make the deal with him?"_

"_Mabel—"_

"_There's nothing I could think of that would make me make a deal with him. I mean, after everything he's done—especially to you—that there'd be no chance I'd make another deal!"_

"_MABEL!"_

"_What!?"_

"_It was in exchange for YOUR life.."_

Mabel was officially freaked out. Her brother had been sitting in bed all day, looking more.. zombie-like than usual. He was constantly mumbling things to himself, watching her with every tiny movement she made. She couldn't stand being in here, it was stuffy, hot, and everything he did made her nervous. Every stray thought could very well be one of Bill's commands—and how would they know? How would anyone know? He was going crazy over this. And to be honest.. she couldn't blame him.

He had been trying to hold in his emotions, but it was to no avail. He broke down, starting to cry quietly, getting louder, and louder, until they reached high-pitched wails.

Mabel immediately pounced onto his bed, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. She cooed soft, comforting words, but they didn't do a thing. He just kept crying, and crying, and crying.. until the point where he was starting to choke on his own short, choppy breathing patterns. It was about an hour before he finally settled down, laying his head on Mabel's chest for comfort. She awkwardly ruffled his hair, smiling down at him—though it was obviously forced, holding none of her normal cheer.

It was worse for him. He was so scared of everything that went on in his head. It just kept filling up with ideas—so many ideas, terrible, horrible ideas, that he couldn't even imagine any other day without the help of the demon running around implanting them. He closed his eyes, fingers interlocking as he slowly fell off into a sleep. All of this crying made him feel exhausted, along with the whole journal thing.

Mabel carefully took her hands and put his head on the pillow, quietly slipping off the bed and tiptoeing over to the door. She opened it, cringing as it creaked a bit—but Dipper just murmured something in his sleep and turned his back to the door. Good. He needed the rest after all.. this.

She sighed and made her way into the kitchen, looking out the window to notice that it was almost nighttime. This day had gone by so incredibly fast—most of it including just her trying to get her sibling to calm down—that she hadn't even had the time to see what time it was! Well, now she knew. It was sunset, actually. Stan came in, and Mabel made a bit of small talk with him, trying to make everything seem like it was alright.

"I haven't seen Dipper all day. The kid alright?" Stan grunted, not bothering to look up at Mabel as he washed his hands in the sink.

"Yeah, he's just a little sick. Nothing Doctor Mabel can't fix, though!" She beamed, amazed by her own acting skills.

"Well, take good care of him. Less work for me," He chuckled, patting her on the head before heading over to the fridge and grabbing a Pitt soda. "I'll probably be goin' to bed early tonight. Just lettin' you know. If you need anything, well.. you can probably get it for yourself." He added quickly, before scratching his back and heading off to watch some movie. 'The Duchess disapproves" or something.

She gave a smile as he walked off, turning back to the sink and facepalming. How was she going to hide this from everybody else? If she didn't find a way to fix this soon.. they'd all be seriously screwed.

She tried to think up a plan, snatching up Waddles in her hands and holding him up. "What am I gonna do?" She whispered, hugging her pig tight in her arms. The pink little thing gave a little 'oink' in reply, which earned a tiny giggle.

She didn't know how long she had stayed up, but Stan had long gone to sleep, as well as Waddles, who was curled up on the floor. She had been sitting at the table for an ungodly amount of hours, trying to devise up some sort of a plan. She gave up, and walked up the stairs, slowly cracking open the door to peer inside. She expected to see the sleeping form of Dipper in the bed, but she instead was met with the sight of messy sheets and.. was that.. writing?

He had left the blacklight on, and there was writing everywhere she looked—in invisible ink, of course. The more she looked, the more she realized how insane Dipper was going. At first, it hand just started out with 'Bill' in rather scraggly writing, but then it was starting to become pictures of the triangle. They were small, until she came to one that covered the whole left wall. There were a bunch of symbols, a pine tree, a shooting star, a question mark.. all crossed out.

_HELP_

_THERE'S NO HOPE_

_DOOM_

_HELP_

_DEATH AWAITS_

_HELP_

_HELP_

_CAN'T SPEAK_

_HELP_

_HELP_

_HELP_

_HELP_

_HELP_

_WITNESS_

_HELP_

_HELP_

_HELP_

_HELP.._

The 'help' went on forever, it seemed. She bit her lip, trying to hold back tears. She had to find him.. who knew what he was doing? She heard the clatter of drawers and whipped around, finding nothing but darkness and more haunting messages awaiting her.

She raced down the stairs, trying to find where her brother had went. She had been looking for a while until she came across Stan's room—his door was slightly open—and immediately, she banged open the door.

Dipper held a knife just above Stan's chest, trembling and crying silently. He held it up, ready to strike down, when he looked straight at Mabel. She shook with fear, unable to move. She whimpered softly, saying something along the lines of 'pleasenopleaseno' and 'whywhywhy'.

Dipper stared at her for what seemed to be hours, before finally whispering,

"Kill Stan.."


	5. Did you hear? Doritos are back

It had taken her a while to react to the whole scene that was unfolding before her. She sprang after she had taken a few careful steps towards him, trying to pin him to the wall. She was surprised to find herself successful, with her hands gripped onto his wrists, which she held against the wall as best she could. He wasn't resisting as much as she suspected—most likely just a cause of the extreme pain he was feeling.

He screamed, kicking and flailing uselessly under her grasp. Stan awoke, sitting up in bed and trying to adjust his blurry vision to the ordeal going on as he settled his glasses on his nose. He squinted at first, assuming it was one of his dreams about children fighting—to where he always filmed it and made big bucks—but as soon as he saw a gleam of silver, he knew it was all too real.

"Dipper! Stop it!" Mabel said, her voice squeaky. She hated having to do this, and unfortunately, she was starting to lose. She struggled to keep him against the wall, trying to duck every blow he threw at her. She had to get that knife out of his hands.. even if she were to let go for a second, Stan would be a goner. She happened to glance over at her shocked grand-uncle, to which she frantically screamed, "Help!"

Stan rushed over, unsure of what to do. He looked down to Mabel, then back to Dipper. "On three.. let go," He said after a few moments of silence, sounding much too serious.

Mabel felt her jaw drop, starting to pant as Dipper fought back more and more. "Are you _serious_? He's going to—"

"Just trust me."

Her lips trembled, tears beginning to spill down her bright red cheeks. She gave a hesitant nod, and looked into her brother's brown eyes. Was he fighting in there, too? A whole war could be going on in his mind, and she wouldn't even know it. It was amazing how quickly someone could fall apart, without anyone having a clue. It chilled her to the bone, and she—

"One.. two..

three!"

She released him, stumbling backwards and watching Dipper immediately lunge for Stan with the knife. Stan overtook him in strength, obviously, and pushed him into the corner, pinning him once again.

Mabel gave a sigh and flopped onto the ground, feeling sore and bruised on the inside out. She wiped her tears, trying to look away from the two—but it was like a car accident. It was tragic, and most didn't know the backstory.. and it was so hard not to stare.

Dipper wasn't about to give up, squeezing the knife in his hands as he aimed to kick Stan in the stomach. It was countered with a hard shove back onto the wall, to which he gave a high-pitched wail. "No!" He cried as the weapon was pried from his hands—luckily, this gave him a chance to escape from Stan's grasp. He started running for the door, but the voice inside him turned him around. _KILL! KILL!_

He pushed himself forward, every step pushing off a bit of the toxins he felt mingle in his blood. It was poison this time, but an electric feeling—like his insides were wired up to his heart. It was like sparks inside of his veins, and while it made him feel incredibly powerful, it was sickening. He wanted to throw up—but did I mention that his lungs were practically being smoked with every breath? He didn't know why—his energy was fine, in fact, he felt like he could do this forever—but he could not stop coughing for the life of him.

The fight ended with Stan dragging Dipper back into his room and tossing him onto the bed, quickly closing the door and holding the knob. These doors didn't lock from the outside or the inside.

Mabel followed, still shocked. She was out of tears.. she was so tired that the only thing she wanted to do was to wake up from this nightmare. It wasn't really happening, right? None of it had. One day, she'd wake up, and her brother would be on the bed next to her, and their parents would come in, and tell them to get ready for school.. and—

"STAN! OPEN THE DOOR!"

She cringed at the sound of her sibling's suddenly husky voice, staring up at her great-uncle. He obviously wasn't going anywhere.

As kids, they all dreamed of an idealistic life. She was just a part of the majority of kids that hadn't dealt with much loss or trauma at a young age—and now that she finally had real problems before her, she wanted to run. The social isolation, the whole front she had put up for her life.. she couldn't hide behind it anymore. Her voice warbled and trembled, but the words she spoke had the tiniest bit of confidence behind them.

"..let me in there,"

"What? You're just as crazy as your brother!" Stan hissed, not looking down as he held the shaking door. Who knew what was going on behind there? Why on earth would she want to..?

"I.. well, it's—it's you he wants to, um.. like.. y'know. Right? So, he won't come for me.." She explained, knowing it wasn't exactly a foolproof plan. "C'mon! It's the only chance we got!"

It was about a fifteen minute argument before Stan reluctantly opened the door and shoved Mabel inside, swinging the door back shut.

Mabel quickly scanned the room, unable to see in the darkness. She held herself against the wall, trying to be as quiet as possible. She was right—Dipper wasn't coming for her. Where was he, then? She flipped on the lights to see him sprawled out on the ground, nails digging into the floorboard.

She was about to go and comfort him, but remembered the reality she was facing. With a shaky breath, she stepped forward, giving a quick knock on the door to let Stan know she was alright. Well, hopefully he knew that a knock meant she was alright.. had she even told him?

That wasn't the point. She let her mind wander much too often.

"Dipper..?" She started cautiously, tilting her head so that she could see his face.

He looked broken. His skin was as pale as a ghost—the color was drained from his normally peachy complexion—and bruises were littered amongst his body. The only real 'glow' he had was from the cyan marking on his forehead, although glow was a stretch. It looked like it was on fire. He didn't move an inch as she came and crouched, slowly reaching out a hand to pull back his hair.

She quickly pulled back, giving a quick "ouch!" as she shook her hand. It.. it _was _on fire. She didn't bother holding back the tears as she began to comprehend just how bad this was getting.

She slowly stood up, looking up at the ceiling. She felt betrayed, and indifferent—or perhaps she was just so confused that she couldn't understand her own emotions. The lights flickered for a moment, causing her to swallow whatever pitied pride she had left.

"Are you there, Bill? It's me, Mabel.."

AH! Sorry, going to have to end it on that really sucky reference. I'm sorry it took so long to update, hopefully another chapter will be up tomorrow. I really want to thank you guys for your patience with me, as well as the positive feedback both my stories have received. All of it means a lot to me, as I'm sure you already know! :D

So thanks again, and if you liked it, a review, follow, or favorite would be great! Love ya!


End file.
